Many industrial applications require cutting of natural or synthetic fibers, or materials made from such fibers, from spools, rolls or other means for gathering the fiber or fiber material. Fiber cutting is mostly commonly required in the textile and other industries where fiber and fiber materials are woven or spun and then wound onto spools or rolls for handling. Although a conceptually simple operation, efficient fiber cutting has proven difficult in certain manufacturing contexts.
Cutting fiber manually with a knife or other sharp implement is often not practical. Manual cutting requires excessive physical effort by the cutter, especially when the material being cut is unusually thick or extends over a significant distance. Many fiber materials, such as glass or plastic fibers, are resistant to cutting by hand held blades, thus making manual cutting even more difficult.
Cutting tools, similar to heavy duty soldering tools, that employ a heated cutting tip have more recently been used. Such tools burn or melt the fiber material, allowing the cutter to cut the fiber more quickly as compared to the more traditional cutting knife. Fiber materials resistant to a manually operated cutting knife can be more easily cut with the heated tool.
However, such heated cutting tools have exhibited several disadvantages of their own. Many of such tools employ copper cutting tips which are easily deformed, especially at high temperature, and as a result do not hold up well in use. Tools employing copper tips are also relatively useless at temperatures above about 1100.degree. F. because the copper tips become so soft that only a little pressure can be applied to the tip, thus making cutting slower and more difficult. This temperature limitation also renders such tools virtually useless for cutting fiber material which does not burn or melt at the highest temperature allowed by such tools.
Previous heated cutting tools also place some physical strain on the user because such devices tend to be relatively heavy (1-2 pounds) largely due to the weight of the transformers. Over extended periods of use, the heavy devices cause significant user fatigue. Breakage is also increased because dropping such devices often results in greater damage. Finally, devices incorporating transformers are also prone to "burning out" upon extended or continuous use.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a fiber cutting tool which provides the benefit of a heated cutting element in a light weight form and which provides the added benefits of very high temperatures and prolonged tool life.